Ruling of the Tribunal on an application by Vodafone Limited (an intervener) seeking a direction from the Tribunal that the Competition Commission should take account of Vodafone’s arguments in respect of an issue referred to by the parties as the ‘Depreciation Point’ (involving the depreciation of 3G Spectrum in OFCOM cost models) and an application by T-Mobile (UK) Limited (another intervener) to amend its statement of intervention so as to include a similar argument.

The Tribunal considered that both applications should be treated as applications to amend Vodafone’s and T-Mobile’s respective statements of intervention.

The Tribunal refused permission to amend under rule 11(1) of the Tribunal Rules (in conjunction with rule 16). The Tribunal held that, in the context of these complicated multi-party proceedings involving a reference to the Competition Commission, the ‘Depreciation Point’ had been raised at too late a stage.

This is an unofficial summary prepared by the Registry of the Competition Appeal Tribunal.